NGTC Horticulture Students Finish 16th In National Competition

North Georgia Technical College horticulture students are back home with several distinguished awards, including a team ranking of 16th in the nation, after competing in the 40th annual National Collegiate Landscape Competition held at Mississippi State University this past weekend.

Thirteen horticulture students competed in 28 events against 63 schools from both two-year and four-year colleges and universities.

Students from North Georgia Tech placed first, second and third in three individual events and in the top 20 nationally in several other events.

The top three national event winners were Scarlett Kilby of Rabun Gap who placed second in Annual and Perennial Identification and third in Interior Plant Identification.

Jess Owens of Clayton placed first in the NCLC Logo National Selection. Owens’ logo was selected and used
for all the participants’ conference t-shirts.

Kilby also earned an overall national student ranking of 21, and Tommy Etheridge of Lavonia earned a national rank fo 24th overall.

North Georgia Technical College Environmental Horticulture Instructor Craig Thurmond said that the school’s team made everyone very proud and served as a remindere that even though it is a small school, North Georgia Tech is capable of competing and holding its own with the biggest and the best national horticulture programs.

Thurmond said that North Georgia Technical College competed against universities like Michigan State University, BYU, Penn State, Ohio State, Auburn, North Carolina State, The University of Georgia, Virginia Tech, Kansas State and Mississippi State. just to name a few.